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Ariel Castro dead after prison officials find him hanging in his cell

Ariel Castro suicide

Ariel Castro was moved from the Lorain Correctional Institution into protective custody at the Corrections Reception Center in Orient, southwest of Columbus, last month.
(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

Ariel Castro, the man sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, is dead.

Castro was found hanging in his cell at 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, south of Columbus, said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

He was housed in protective custody, which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes, Smith said. She had no other details about how he was hanging when he was found.

Emergency life saving measures were attempted by prison staff. Eventually he was transferred to the medical center at Ohio State University, where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m.

An investigation will be conducted in conjunction with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Smith said.

Castro was sentenced Aug. 1 to life plus 1,000 years by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo after he pleaded guilty to the abductions and rapes of the three Cleveland women.

They were rescued in May from Castro’s house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland when neighbors spotted a frantic Berry and helped her break out. After she called police, officers entered the home, finding Knight and DeJesus upstairs.

Castro admitted in July that he kidnapped the women and raped them repeatedly while holding them — sometimes in chains — in his home. He pleaded guilty to hundreds of counts of kidnapping and rape, as well as two counts of aggravated murder.

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